Method and apparatus for laying in yarn on dial needles



Dec. 21, 1965 JQH. BLORE ETAL 3,

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LAYING IN YARN ON DIAL NEEDLES Filed May 25,1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 f i 7 5 Q I. 2@**" H l A m! i FIGQZ 1 JAMES HENRYBL E BARRY JOHN W ATTORNEY Dec. 21, 1965 J. H. BLORE ETAL 3,224,225

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LAYING IN YARN ON DIAL NEEDLES Filed May 25,1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 s mw .kIAPJ-Wfio 0 Y Jo or.

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INVENTORS JAMES HENRY BLORE BARRY JOHN WARD BY Z ATTORNEY FIG. 8

CYLINDER Dec. 21, 1965 R J. H. B LORE ETAL 3,224,225

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LAYING IN YARN ON DIAL NEEDLES Filed May 25,1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 FROM STITCH YARN LEAD-IN HEAD v BARRY JOHN WARDATTORNEY L F I G. 9 INVENTORS l/l 5 JAMES HENRY BLORE Dec. 21, 1965 J.HLBLORE ETAL 3,224,225

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LAYING IN YARN ON DIAL NEEDLES Filed May 25,-1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 axwava HHIHHIIH IIIHTI .sfcflo/ve J2 10 'llIIIHHIHHIHIII K i HIIHIIIIHIIH Fr INVENTORS \J/VMES H/E/V/QY BAORE,

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United States Patent 3,224,225 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LAYING IN YARN0N DIAL NEEDLES James Henry Blore, Andover, Mass., and Barry John Ward,Kirby Muxloe, England, assignors to E. I. du Pont de Nemours andCompany, Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 25, 1961,Ser. No. 112,608 2 Claims. (Cl. 669) This invention relates to a novelmeans and method for knitting sweater blanks having a laid-in stitch onautomatic transfer circular knitting machines.

Knitted fabrics incorporating a laid-in stitch have been made in thepast, but these knitted constructions have not been used, before thisinvention, in knitting articles such as sweater blanks on automatictransfer circular knitting machines because of mechanical difliculties.The knitting industry is interested in producing knitted structureswhich can be brushed to produce a shaggy surface appearance or nappedand sheared to produce a plush effect or to incorporate a novelty yarnthat cannot normally be knitted. The incorporation of a laid-in yarninto knitted sweaters greatly facilitates brushing or napping by makingthe fiber available in the most convenient form, because the laid-institch introduces a yarn that is not an integral part of the fabricfoundation.

Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a process andapparatus for knitting, on automatic transfer machines, sweater blankshaving rib stitch portions and jersey or body stitch portions in whichthe body portions are provided with a laid-in stitch construction.Another object is to suitably modify conventional automatic transfercircular knitting machines to make it possible to incorporate a laid-inyarn in knitting sweater blanks on these machines. A further object isto provide new styles in circular knitwear, such as sweaters and thelike, employing a laid-in stitch construction. Another object is toprovide a means for holding and controlling the laid-in yarn being fedto a circular knitting machine while the dial needles of the machine areengaging the stitch yarn.

Other objects will be apparent from a description of the invention givenbelow.

The above objects are accomplished in the knitting of sweater blanks onan automatic transfer circular knitting machine by the steps comprisingfeeding to the dial needles on said knitting machine stitch yarns andlaid-in yarns, simultaneously raising the cylinder needles on saidmachine to hold back the laid-in yarn while the dial needles areengaging the stitch yarn. The invention also comprises certain apparatusfor introducing a laid-in yarn in making sweater blanks, said apparatusbeing more fully described below, particularly with reference to theattached drawings.

FIGURE 1 illustrates a front view of a portion of the standard cylindercam system on a conventional commercial Wildman-Jacquard T A-4 automatictransfer circular knitting machine, illustrating the normal path of thecylinder needles in making the rib portion of a sweater blank.

FIGURE 2 is a front view of the same cam system which, after beingmodified in accordance with this invention, illustrates the new pathfollowed by the cylinder needles during the knitting of the rib portionof a sweater blank.

FIGURE 3 is a front view of the same cam system which, aftermodification in accordance with this invention, illustrates the new pathfollowed by the cylinder needles during the knitting of the body portionof a sweater blank.

FIGURE 4 illustrates one particular modification of stitch constructionin accordance with this invention wherein the sweater blank is preparedby alternating in single succession knit yarns and laid-in yarns in thebody portion of the sweater blank, after forming a 1 x 1 stitchconstruction in the rib portion of the sweater blank. This figure showsa somewhat diagrammatical straight line showing of dial structure anddial needles positioned to receive the lay-in yarn, the view takengenerally in the direction shown by the arrow in FIGURE 8.

FIGURE 5 is a somewhat diagrammatic showing similar to FIGURE 4 showingyarn dial structure and dial needles positioned at the next stage informing the lay-in construction.

FIGURE 6 is another view similar to FIGURE 5 showing the yarn and otherstructure positioned in the next stage in the lay-in knitting procedure.The cylinder needles are shown in this figure in position to hold thelay-in yarn in position against the dial periphery.

FIGURE 7 is another view similar to FIGURE 6 with the structurepositioned at the final stage in the formation of the lay-inconstruction.

FIGURE 8 is a partial vertical cross-sectional view through dial andcylinder structure showing cooperation of the needles and cam mechanismas well as stitch position.

FIGURE 9 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 99 of FIGURE 5showing the position of the lay-in yarn with respect to the ends of dialneedles such as D1.

FIGURE 10 is a diagrammatic view of the dial cam and cylinder cam systemillustrating the relative positioning of the cylinder and dial needleswhen the lay-in yarn is being received and also during the knitting ofthe jersey stitch portion of a sweater blank.

FIGURE 11 is an expanded view of the high butt and all butt dial camshown in FIGURE 10.

Our invention involves several critical changes in the design of the camsystem on conventional automatic transfer circular knitting machines inorder to make it possible for sweater blanks to be knitted having thestitch structure outlined. Referring, for example, to the cam system ina Wildman-Jacquard T A-4 sweater knitting machine and to FIGURES 1, 2,and 3 of the drawings, cam A was cut off at the bottom to allow thecylinder needles to enter the cam system with essentially no change invertical position. Cam D was also modified by cutting off a portion ofthe top surface for the same purpose. Cam B was completely eliminatedfrom the cam system because in the first place it interfered with theproper operation of the rib knitting step of the process by preventingthe cylinder needles from rising in FIGURE 2 to pass between cam C andcam F. Secondly, it was found that in knitting the body portion of asweater blank as shown in FIGURE 3, cam B served no function incontrolling or allowing the cylinder needles to pass between cam C andcam E. Cam C was cut to a sharp point on the left side as shown inFIGURES 2 and 3 in order to be able to control the passage of thecylinder needles from a path between cams C and F when knitting the ribportion in FIGURE 2 to a path between C and E when knitting the bodyportion in FIGURE 3. This change in path of the cylinder needles isaccomplished merely by changing a control lever (not shown) on theoutside of the knitting machine to raise and lower post H and cam E whenknitting the rib portion and body portion, respectively of the sweaterblank. In order to impart this extra lifting motion to cam E, controlpost H had to be modified. The protruding knob H on the control post hadto be lowered 7 inch from the top of the post and the top of theprotruding surface at H" on the control post had to be correspondinglylowered 7 inch, both modifications being necessary in order to allow thecylinder needles to rise above cam C when using the stitch yarn duringthe cycle that knits the rib portion of the sweater blank. Also cam Ehad to be modified on the left end and upper surface as indicated (bythe broken lines indicating the original configuration of this cam) inFIGURE 2 to raise the butts of the cylinder needles to a high enoughposition to pass above the newly designed sharp point on cam C in theribforming cycle of knitting the sweater blank. Essentially no changeswere found necessary in cams F and G.

In the operation of the Wildman-Jacquard T A-4 circular knitting machinein accordance with this invention the cams rotate normally as a unit ina circular path. Cams A, C, D, F, and G are fixed with respect tovertical motion, while cam E is arranged to be shifted as desired up anddown in a vertical direction to control the path of the cylinder needlesduring the rib making and body making cycles, respectively, of formingthe sweater blank, as shown in FIGURES 2 and 3. Of course, when shiftingfrom the knitting of a rib construction on both the dial and cam needlesto a jersey stitch construction, it is necessary to transfer by aconventional operation all the loops on each of the cylinder needles toeach of the corresponding dial needles. Contrary to existing practice,in the operation of the present invention while feeding stitch yarns andlaid-in yarns during the body-forming cycle of the knitting machine, thecylinder needles are used to perform a holding function instead of aknitting function. The cylinder needles hold back the laid-in yarn insuch a position so as to allow the dial needles to engage the stitchyarn as shown in FIGURE 6. Without the modified cam system describedabove and the different function performed by the cylinder needles, thelaid-in yarn when fed to a conventional cam system fails to be retainedon the stem of the dial needle behind the open latch at the criticalstage in the operation and tends to be retained in the hook of the dialneedle, and, therefore, does not form the desired construction ofalternating knit and laid-in yarns Which is the object of thisinvention. The modified cam action of this invention takes place in thestitch-forming cycle following the introduction of each laid-in feed.

In the operation of the present invention the laid-in yarn is fedperpendicular to the horizontally moving dial needles although inessentially the same plane as the one in which the dial needles moveback and forth as shown in FIGURE 4 by an additional yarn lead-in head(not shown). The laid-in yarn is also fed in a plane perpendicular tothe vertically moving cylinder needles. The machine head or position atwhich the lay-in yarn is fed to the dial needles is preferably set up sothat alternate dial needles (D2 and D4 in FIGURE 4) project from thedial to receive the lay-in thread, the other dial needles being fullyretracted. This is a conventional operation in the art and isaccomplished by any suitable arrangement known in the art such asproviding the alternate projecting dial needle with high or longer buttsthan the others. US. Patents 2,024,174 and 2,174,439 are good examplesof circular knitting machines which handle a lay-in yarn in theconventional manner over which applicants invention represents asignificant improvement. At this position each needle already carries aloop of the regular stitch yarn. Immediately following the position atwhich the lay-in yarn is introduced, the alternate projecting dialneedles move to the fully retracted position as shown in FIGURES 5 and9. The lay-in yarn is fed into the dial needles at a level and at atension which causes it to take a position as shown in FIGURE 9. At thenext machine head, yarn lead-in head, or position where the next stitchyarn is fed to the dial needles, the modified cylinder cams of thisinvention are arranged to raise the cylinder needles as shown in FIGURE6 and then move the dial needles to their projecting positions as shownin FIGURE 6. One of the main points of this invention is that theelevated cylinder needles such as C1, C2, C3, and C4 prevent the stitchyarn loops and the lay-in yarn from moving outwardly of the dialstructure with the dial needles, and cause the stitch yarn loops andlay-in yarn which rides above every other dial needle to move behind theneedle latches (FIGURE 6). The other dial needles pass over the lay-inyarn as they project from the dial. With the dial needles extending fromthe dial the new stitch yarn is fed into the hooks thereof, as shown inFIGURES 6 and 8. Then as the dial needles retract the new stitch yarnloops are formed and pulled over and below alternately, the lay-in yarnand through each of the stitch yarn loops of the preceding course toform the next course and its lay-in yarn component as shown in FIGURE 7.FIGURE 10 illustrates the relative position of the dial and cylinderneedles from the time at which the lay-in yarn is added through the timeat which the cylinder needles are raised to hold the laid-in yarn andall the dial needles are extended outwardly to receive the next stitchyarn. The dial needle arrangement is one of alternate high and low buttsaround the entire dial system. This enables high butt dial needles 10 tobe selected as they pass from left to right in the cam raceway and passover the extended high butt cam HB. Section 2 shows cam HB extended tothe tuck position which permits longer alternate high butt dial needles10 to be extended to the tuck position to receive the lay-in yarn andallows the shorter low butt dial needles 12 to remain fully retracted(see FIGURE 4). The dial needles then continue to travel along the camraceway into the center of Section 3 where the all butt cam AB is in theknit position, the cam moving the dial needles to the extended knitposition to receive a new jersey stitch yarn. At the same time thecylinder needles have raised in position to hold the laid-in yarn inposition while the new jersey stitch yarn is being accepted (see FIGURE6). The cylinder needles were raised by contact with cam D and theneedles are correspondingly pulled down out of action by contact withcam C so that they do not interfere with the knitting of the jerseystitch portion by the dial needles. FIGURE 11 is an expanded view of thehigh butt cam HB and all butt cam AB in the tuck position wherein thelonger alternate high butt needles 10 are extended to the tuck positionto receive the lay-in yarn and the short or low butt dial needles 12remain fully retracted. The number of courses of stitch yarn only,between the courses carrying the lay-in yarn, can be varied as desiredto produce changes in the patterns produced. It is preferred that thelaid-in yarn should be heavier than the stitch yarn to achieve optimumdesign effects. The laid-in yarn may be composed of any form offilamentary material such as a standard knitting yarn, a novelty yarn,an elastic yarn, or a roving. It may be formed of continuous filamentsor it may be a spun yarn. The laid-in yarn may be bulked or unbulked,crimped or uncrimped, drawn or undrawn, twisted or untwisted, or it maybe made of filamentary material which has either substantially noresidual lengthwise shrinkage, or has a high percentage or residuallengthwise shrinkage, or the laid-in yarn may be made of a blend of highand low shrinkage filamentary material. An example of a yarn which is ablend of high and low shrinkage filamentary material is one formed, forexample, from a mixture of both acrylonitrile polymer fibers which havea residual lengthwise shrinkage of 03% and acrylonitrile polymer fiberswhich have a residual lengthwise shrinkage of 10-40%, said residualshrinkage being realized normally after knitting by subjecting thefilamentary material to heat, steam, boilmg water, chemical shrinkingagents, such as ethylene carbonate and the like, or other knownconditions to cause shrinkage.

The stitch yarn and the laid-in yarn being fed to the knitting machinemay be of the same filamentary composition or they may be a blend of twoor more different compositions or filamentary forms. Examples of thecompositions which may be used to prepare the yarns include syntheticmaterials, such as polyamides, polyesters, polyurethanes, acrylicpolymers and copolymers (such as those employing acrylonitrile), vinylpolymers, hydrocarbon polymers such as polyethylene, polypropylene, andother polyolefins, fiourocarbon polymers and copolymers such aspolytetrafluoroethylene, cellulose derivatives such as cellulose acetateand other cellulose esters and ethers and regenerated cellulose; as Wellas natural materials such as cotton, wool, glass, jute, silk, and thelike.

The stitch yarn and laid-in yarn used in the present invention may becomposed of blends of two or more synthetic fibers or blends ofsynthetic and natural fibers. In addition to preparing the yarns fromany of the above listed synthetic or natural fibers, the yarns may alsobe composed of composite filaments such as, for example, those describedin the copending application of Breen, Serial No. 621,443, filedNovember 9, 1956, now abandoned, or such as two acrylonitrile polymersdiffering in ionizable group content as described in the copendingapplication of Taylor, Serial No. 640,722, filed February 18, 1957, nowabandoned. The yarns may also be composed of synthetic fibers orfilaments which are either textured or untextured in/or are composed offibers or filaments having modified cross-sections such as thosepossessing a tri-lobal cross-section, exemplified by the filaments ofU.S. 2,939,201 and 2,939,202. The yarns may also be composed of blendsof two or more fibers made from acrylonitrile polymers or copolyrnershaving differential dyeing characteristics. A preferred yarn for use inthis invention is one composed of a blend of acrylonitrile polymerfibers and polyethylene terephthalate fibers.

Variations in the construction of the sweater blanks made in accordancewith this invention are possible and may include using a stitchalternating in single successsion (i.e., knit, laid-in, knit, laid-in,knit, laid-in), or other alternating stitches, such as knit, knit,laid-in, knit, knit, laid-in; knit, knit, knit, laid-in, knit, knit,knit, laid-in); and other constructions depending on the number of feedson the knitting machine (e.g., 4, 12, 24, etc. feeds). The presentinvention may be used on other automatic transfer circular knittingmachines besides the particular machine illustrated; for example, onother Wildman-Iacquard machines of the TA series, on the Ordnance GaugeOTA machine and on the English Wildt RTR machine.

The chief advantage of this invention lies in the fact that a processand apparatus has been discovered which makes it possible to prepare onfull size commercial automatic transfer circular knitting machinesknitted sweater blanks using a laid-in construction. Another advantageis that the process and apparatus modifications of this invention makepossible new constructions in sweaters as well as producing new noveltyeffects, stitch effects, and stylings in the sweater field. Thisinvention facilitates the production of brushed 0r napped sweaters onmachines normally only capable of producing plain jersey sweaters.Another advantage is that the modifications necessary on the commercialcircular knitting machines can be accomplished at a nominal cost.Sweaters can be produced in accordance with this invention that have awoven-like appearance. The laid-in construction of this invention can becarried out on the standard circular knitting dial and cylinder machinescontinuously to produce circular knit tubular sweater blanks havingalternating knit rib portions and laid-in body portions.

The process and apparatus of this invention may be used to make avariety of circular knit fabrics, particularly sweaters, in a variety ofstyles. The laid-in yarn may be a synthetic yarn such as that made fromacrylonitrile polymer fibers which after knitting may be napped andbrushed or the laid-in yarn may be a fancy nub, slub, flake, boucle, ormultiple component novelty twisted yarn which may be used in accordancewith this invention to introduce novelty eifects that have never beforebeen made on automatic transfer circular knit sweater machines.

While we have shown and described our invention in connection with apreferred embodiment, it will be understood that other applications, andmodifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as set forth in the following claims:

We claim:

1. The improved method of knitting sweater blanks on automatic transfercircular knitting machines having a plurality 0f dial needles havinghooks and latches, a plurality of cylinder needles having hooks andlatches and means for actuating said needles to produce jersey stitchand rib stitch material which comprises (a) knitting rib construction onboth said dial and said cylinder needles,

(b) transferring all the loops on each of said cylinder needles to eachof the corresponding dial needles,

(c) forming a jersey stitch construction on said dial needles,

(d) projecting certain dial needles in an extended position whilemaintaining the other of said dial needles in a retracted position,

(e) feeding a lay-in yarn to said extended dial needles,

(f) retracting said extended dial needles to position said lay-in yarnbelow the nose portion of said other dial needles,

(g) the improvement comprising at this point in time, elevating saidcylinder needles and then extending all of said dial needles, saidelevated cylinder needles maintaining said lay-in yarn substantially inits laidin position to insure that said extended dial needles pass abovesaid lay-in yarn,

(h) lowering said cylinder needles and (i) thereafter continuingknitting.

Z. In a conventional automatic transfer circular knitting machinecomprising a plurality of dial needles having hooks and latches, aplurality of cylinder needles having hooks and latches, and a pluralityof means for actuating said needles to produce alternating jersey stitchand rib stitch continuous fabric,

(a) said actuating means comprises means for manipulating said dial andsaid cylinder needles of said jersey stitch fabric on said dial needlesso that an additional yarn is laid-in over and along each course ofknitted stitch yarn with periodic loops passing below the knitted loopsbelow said jersey stitch yarn to secure the laid-in yarn to said jerseystitch fabric,

(b) one of said means for manipulating said dial and cylinder needlescomprising means for maintaining certain of said dial needles retractedduring the feeding of said lay-in yarn to the hooks of the remainder ofthe extended dial needles and then retracting all of said needles and(c) the improvement wherein another of said means for manipulating saiddial and cylinder needles further comprises cam means for elevating saidcylinder needles just prior to extending said dial needles for thefeeding to said extended dial needles of the next new stitch yarn, saidcam means elevating said cylinder needles at this point in time tomaintain said laid-in yarn substantially in its laid-in position toinsure that said certain dial needles pass uniformly under said laid-inyarn and the remainder pass uniformly over said laid-in yarn duringextending movement, said cam means further maintaining said cylinderneedles in an elevated position for a period of time sufiicient toinsure that said elevated cylinder needles cooperate with said extendingdial needles to cause each lay-in yarn and loops of stitch yarn on saiddial needles to be moved uniformly axially relatively of said extendingdial needles behind the dial needle latches as the dial needle hooksextend to receive the new stitch yarn fed in at the next course.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,024,174 12/1935Lawson et a1. 66-9 2,174,439 9/1939 Dickens 66-9 RUSSELL C. MADER,Primary Examiner,

1. THE IMPROVED METHOD OF KNITTING SWEATER BLANKS ON AUTOMATIC TRANSFERCIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES HAVING A PLURALITY OF DIAL NEEDLES HAVINGHOOKS AND LATCHES, A PLURALITY OF CYLINDER NEEDLES HAVING HOOKS ANDLATCHES AND MEANS FOR ACTUATING SAID NEEDLES TO PRODUCE JERSEY STITCHAND RIB STITCH MATERIAL WHICH COMPRISES (A) KNITTING RIB CONSTRUCTION ONBOTH SAID DIAL AND SAID CYLINDER NEEDLES, (B) FORMING A JERSEY STITCHCONSTRUCTION ON SAID DIAL NEEDLES TO EACH OF THE CORRESPONDING DIALNEEDLES, (C) FORMING A JERSEY STITCH CONSTRUCTION ON SAID DIAL NEEDLES,(D) PROJECTING CERTAIN DIAL NEEDLES IN AN EXTENDED POSITION WHILEMAINTAINING THE OTHER OF SAID DIAL NEEDLES IN A RETRACTED POSITION, (E)FEEDING A LAY-IN YARN TO SAID EXTENDED DIAL NEEDLES (F) RETRACTING SAIDEXTENDED DIAL NEEDLES TO POSITION SAID LAY-IN YARN BELOW THE NOSEPORTION OF SAID OTHER DIAL NEEDLES, (G) THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING ATTHIS POINT IN TIME, ELEVATING SAID CYLINDER NEEDLES AND THEN EXTENDINGALL OF SAID DIAL NEEDLES, SAID ELEVATED CYLINDER NEEDLES MAINTAININGSAID LAY-IN YARN SUBSTANTIALLY IN ITS LAIDIN POSITION TO INSURE THATSAID EXTENDED DIAL NEEDLES PASS ABOVE SAID LAY-IN YARN, (H) LOWERINGSAID CYLINDER NEEDLES AND (I) THEREAFTER CONTINUING KNITTING.